Growth costs: Leesburg will spend almost $40 million for new wastewater treatment plant

LEESBURG — Leesburg is forking over almost $40 million for a new wastewater treatment plant to accommodate rapid growth beyond the existing demand of Villages homes shooting up along County Road 470 and Florida’s Turnpike.

City commissioners on Monday agreed to a $39,992,440 contract with Wharton Smith Inc., and an additional $3.9 million to the company to upgrade a lift station.

Some of the expenses for the new treatment plant will be paid for in wastewater treatment revenue. The city had $10 million available in cash, but $30 million was financed with a 3.37 percent 20-year bank loan, said City Manager Al Minner.

The city had already built a plant near the turnpike to handle 3 million to 4.5 million gallons (GMP) per day. But planned rapid growth north and south of the old city limits – about 30,000 units “on the books” – has forced the city to provide a total of 4.5 to 6 GMP, Minner said. The city’s 27,910 population could double in a few years.

“We said, ‘Holy cow! We need more,’ ” Minner said.

Many of the projects now crossing city planners’ desks are for apartments instead of single-family homes, Minner said. Other developments include both, and many are huge. There is the proposed $1.6 billion, 1,200-acre Whispering Hills project, for example, on U.S. 27.

Mayor Jimmy Burry quoted city planner Dan Miller on Tuesday as saying that, “whatever they’re building, all are selling.”

It’s mind-boggling for Burry and his fifth Florida generation family. “I remember the way it used to be,” he said, referring to the days when orange groves – not rooftops – covered the landscape.

Burry acknowledged that the price tag for wastewater treatment is high but views it as the price of doing business. He said the demand has rapidly increased from 2.5 to 4.5, to 6 GMP, “and that’s just to meet demand.”

Burry said developers will have to pay for access.

Leesburg sells utility services: electricity for the northern part of town, water, wastewater treatment, and natural gas. Natural gas sales alone are a boon to the city. “That’s why Leesburg has the Venetian Center and a new swimming pool,” Burry said.

The increasing demand for wastewater treatment has especially put pressure on the city’s lift station at the Lake Harris Shopping Center at County Road 48 and U.S. 27, which handles 90 percent of the load.

“The wastewater model and pump reports for Lift Station 72 show that it will reach capacity once 100 new homes come online. With the projected growth in the Southern Sewershed, approximately 15,000 new homes, it is critical to upgrade and increase the size …. Failure to do so would result in an inability to serve new homes and increase the potential for system failures that could result in severe Florida Department of Environmental Protection monetary penalties and consent orders,” according to a report presented to commissioners Monday.

Home builders reported a mixed bag for construction in May, with some subdivision developers hitting the pause button due to rising interest rates, a shortage of workers, and materials. However, the ever-increasing migration of people to Florida adds to the demand for affordable housing, which was already in high demand.

The city operates two wastewater treatment plants. The other one, near Herlong Park on U.S. 441, treats about 3 million gallons per day.

Much of the waste will be treated and used to irrigate golf courses and homes in The Villages, Minner said. Whatever The Villages can’t handle will be sprayed on fields by the city. The rest will come out as treated sludge and will be dumped into landfills. Currently, sludge is headed for the Lakeland area for farm use, but the city will be looking for additional options.

The Villages began building 3,200 homes last year on 1,200 acres it purchased from Leesburg for $7.5 million at Florida’s Turnpike and County Road 470 in 2018.

This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: Almost $40 million for new Leesburg water treatment plant